As of April 1, 2024, applicants filing for U.S. citizenship will have the option to select “X” as their gender on their application forms per an Alert posted on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website. The introduction of this additional…
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it will conduct a nationwide trial of proposed changes to the naturalization test. The agency has also published a notice in the Federal Register. According to USCIS, the trial will include changes to the English-speaking…
Lawful permanent residents who file Form N-400 naturalization applications with USCIS on or after December 12, 2022 will receive a 24-month automatic extension of their green card validity. USCIS will update the language on Form N-400 receipt notices to note…
The USCIS Ombudsman’s Annual Report describes USCIS’s increasingly severe application backlogs and emphasizes the need for congressional appropriations and increased application fees in order to improve the agency’s operations. As of April 2022, USCIS had 8.5 million pending applications for…
Due to the continuing COVID-19 emergency, USCIS is extending its deadline extension policy through July 25, 2022. Petitioners and applicants will continue to have an additional 60 days to respond to requests for evidence, notices of intent to deny or…
The regulation will expand premium processing service to additional case types, including additional categories of I-140 petitions, certain Form I-765 employment authorization document (EAD) applications, and some Form I-539 applications to change or extend status. The rule will take effect…
As part of the Government of Canada’s response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is introducing new immigration streams for Ukrainians who want to enter Canada temporarily or permanently. For Ukrainians who want to…
A U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) final rule that would expand premium processing to include additional case types has cleared the Office of Management and Budget, putting it closer to publication and implementation. The regulation implements Congress’s October 2020…
The Department of Homeland Security is proposing a new public charge rule that would largely codify its existing policy on the public charge ground of inadmissibility. Consistent with longstanding policy, the new rule would deem a foreign national ineligible to…
In its ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic, USCIS is further extending and revising its deadline extension policy for responses to various agency actions to March 26, 2022. The accommodations, which were initially announced in March 2020 as a means of minimizing…